The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 16, 2025

Summer Mountains (after Dong Yuan [active c. 937–75])

1290–1354

attributed to Huang Gongwang

(Chinese, 1269–1354)
China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
hanging scroll; ink and slight color on silk
Image: 131.7 x 55.6 cm (51 7/8 x 21 7/8 in.); Overall: 257.4 x 71.2 cm (101 5/16 x 28 1/16 in.)
Cornelia Blakemore Warner Bequest, by exchange, and Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1992.1
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The wet hills and moist, rich atmosphere evoke the southern Chinese summer, characterized by monsoon rains and lush growth.

Description

This monumental landscape is drawn in softly rounded strokes with darker lines frequently applied on top of lighter ones. This technique recalls one of the suggestions included in a collection of the artist's writings known as Secrets of Landscape Painting: The most difficult thing in painting is using the ink. The artist begins by using dilute ink and builds it up to the point where it begins to look right, then uses dense, black ink, applied fairly dry, and washes of deeper-toned ink. This technique distinguishes the fields from the paths, the far from the near. Huang Gongwang may have learned this technique from observing nature through the eyes of an earlier master, Dong Yuan, a painter whose style he shared.
  • 1400s?
    Mr. Wei (of Dongyi?)
    late 1500s
    Cao Renzhi, to Dong Qichang
    1599–?
    Dong Qichang 董其昌 [1555–1636]
    Wang Shimin 王時敏 [1592–1680]
    Geng Zhaozhong [1640–1686]
    1600s
    Geng Jiazuo [1600s]
    An Qi 安岐 [1683–1717]
    1700s?
    "Descendant of Wang Hongxu"
    1700s?–1800s?
    Wang Baotian [1700s?–1800s?]
    Pei JIngfu [1855–1926]
    ?–1992
    (James J. Freeman, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1992–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Provenance given by J. Keith Wilson in "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994), p. 336, Table 1. Ownership history based on seal on painting, see fig. 45c, p. 337
    2 Provenance given by J. Keith Wilson in "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994), p. 336, Table 1. Ownership history based on an inscription by Dong Qichang.
    3 Provenance given by J. Keith Wilson in "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994), p. 336, Table 1. Inscription formerly on the paintings' mounting, see pp. 336–337, and p. 341, footnote 14.
    4 Provenance given by J. Keith Wilson in "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994), p. 336, Table 1. Ownership history based on copy of painting illustrated in album in Wang Shimin's collection, fig. 46, p. 339.
    5 Provenance given by J. Keith Wilson in "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994), p. 336, Table 1. Ownership history based on seals on painting, see fig. 45d-i, p. 337
    6 Provenance given by J. Keith Wilson in "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994), p. 336, Table 1. Ownership history based on seal on painting, see fig. 45j, p. 337
    7 Provenance given by J. Keith Wilson in "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994), p. 336, Table 1. Ownership history based on seal on painting, see fig. 45k, p. 337
    8 Provenance given by J. Keith Wilson in "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994), p. 336, Table 1. Ownership history based on seal on painting, see fig. 45L, p. 337
    9 Provenance given by J. Keith Wilson in "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994), p. 336, Table 1. Ownership history based on seal on painting, see fig. 45m, p. 337
    10 Provenance given by J. Keith Wilson in "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994), p. 336, Table 1, and p. 341, footnote 13. Ownership history based on record in catalogue.
  • Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1992." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 38–79. Reproduced: p. 38; Mentioned: pp. 42–43, 77 www.jstor.org
    "1993 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (July 1994): 143–218. Mentioned: p. 155 www.jstor.org
    Wilson, J. Keith, and Anne E. Wardwell. "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (October 1994): 270–347. Reproduced: p. 334, 336–337; Mentioned: pp. 333–341, 347 www.jstor.org
    Vanderstappen, Harrie A. "Summer Mountains after Dong Yuan and Hong Gongwang." Monumenta Serica. Journal of Oriental Studies, no. 42 (December 1994), pp. 309–328. www.jstor.org
    Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 72–73
  • Asian Autumn: New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 18-December 31, 1994).
    Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993).
  • {{cite web|title=Summer Mountains (after Dong Yuan [active c. 937–75])|url=false|author=Huang Gongwang|year=1290–1354|access-date=16 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.1